“It is I,” answered the other simply.
It took Sartines a minute to recover from the amazement which this impudence had caused him.
“You see I guessed,” he said; “I knew that Fenix and Balsamo were one and the same.”
“I confess it. You are a great minister.”
“And you are a great fool,” said the magistrate, stretching out his hand towards his bell.
“How so?”
“Because I am going to have you arrested.”
“Nonsense, a man like me is never arrested,” said Balsamo, stepping between the magistrate and the bell.
“Death of my life, who will prevent it? I want to know.”
“As you want to know, my dear Lieutenant of Police, I will tell you—I shall blow out your brains—and with the more facility and the less injury to myself as this weapon is charged with a noiseless explosive which, for its quality of silence, is not the less deadly.”